1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the production of slide fasteners, and more particularly to an apparatus for discharging finished slide fasteners successively out of a slide-fastener finishing machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are known various apparatus for discharging finished slide fasteners successively out of a slide-fastener finishing machine. Some of the known apparatus have a horizontal belt conveyor disposed downstream of a pair of feed rollers for supporting the successive slide fasteners therefrom to convey the same away from the feed rollers, while the other known apparatus have a reciprocable gripper disposed downstream of the feed rollers for gripping a leading end of the individual slide fastener to draw the same longitudinally away from the feed rollers.
However, the conveyor-type known apparatus is disadvantageous in that the conveyor occupies a relatively large area in the apparatus, thus making the latter increased in size. A problem with the gripper-type known apparatus is that the stroke of the gripper must be long enough to draw the individual slide fastener to its full extent and hence must be commensurate with the different lengths of the slide fasteners, thus also increasing the entire length of the apparatus. Further, the known apparatus of the latter type are complex in construction and hence expensive to manufacture because the rate of movement of the gripper must be synchronous with the feeding speed of the feed rollers.